Machine for cleaning wool and other fibres



Sept. 13, 1960 A. BOER MACHINE FOR CLEANING WOOL AND OTHER FIBRES Filed Dec. 22, 1954 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 IN VEN TOR.

Sept. 13, 1960 A. BOER MACHINE FOR CLEANING WOOL AND OTHER mamas Filed Dec. 22, 1954 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 INVENTOR. AEPA]? 13am Un wdstate Pa n -Ofic ...ii?ili2 MACHINE ron CLEANING wooL AND OTHER FIBRES Arpad Boer, Buenos Aires, Argentina, assignor, by mesne assignments, to Bancroft-Brillotex International S.A., Montevideo, Uruguay, a corporation of Uruguay Filed Dec. 22, 1954, Ser. No. 476,968

1 Claim. (Cl. 19-67) The present invention relates to a machine for cleaning, drafting and parallelizing fibers such as wool, hair and cotton.

According to the invention, there is provided a linearly arranged alternating series of endless bands and interposed rollers, the pairs of endless bands and interposed rolers providing a passage through the machine from its entrance end to its discharge end. The series of endless bands and interposed rollers may be arranged vertically, obliquely or horizontally, a vertical arrangement being preferred.

In the accompanying drawings:

Fig. 1 is a side elevational view of the significant parts of a machine according to the invention;

Fig. 2 is a front elevational view of Fig. l; and

Fig. 3 is an enlarged detail view of the upper portion of Fig. 1.

Referring to the drawings in detail, conveyor 1 delivers wool or other fibers in unoriented condition to the feed end of the machine, where there is located the funnel 2, which guides the fibers into the continuous passage through the machine. Above funnel 2 there is a chute or hopper 4 containing detergent powder 5 which is supplied to the fibers entering the feed end of the machine so as to become admixed therewith. The supply of detergent powder can be controled by the openable and closable slide 28. The mixture of fibers and detergent powder enters between a first set of endless belts a which are mounted on and driven by rollers and 11, each roller 10 being larger than each roller 11 and the rollers 10 and 11 constituting sets of rollers which are suitably driven or rotated in any desired or known manner. Below the first set of endless belts a is a pair of spaced rollers b and then proceeding along the machine toward the discharge end there are succeeding alternating pairs of endless bands at and pairs of spaced rollers b, the

total number of units being variable. At the discharge end of the machine there is a sieve conveyor 6 which conveys the processed fibers to any desired delivery point, or other equipment and due to the perforated nature of conveyor 6 the used detergent powder containing absorbed and adsorbed material drops into receptacle 7 therebelow, which receptacle has sloping sides terminating in a bottom channel 8 in which operates a helicoid conveyor 9.

Rollers 10 and 11 are provided with axles 12 and 13 which are mounted in bearings 14 and 15. A truss 16 connects each pair of bearings 14 and 15 and is provided with a section 16 which is extensible by virtue of piston 17 encircled by helical spring 18 in order to maintain constant tension in each belt a. Bearings 14 are crossconnected by a helical spring 19, the ends of which-are secured to the bearings and similarly helical spring 20 is secured to and connects bearings 15.. Thesprings 19 and 20 connecting the bearings serve to exert the desired amount of compression on fibers passing between the belts, is. cause the belts to tend to approach each other. Brushes 21 of any suitable construction are provided to clean the belts and fiber cleaners 22 make contact with the return flights of the belts. Each roller b is provided with an axle 23 mounted on a bearing 24 within. guide rails 25 and a helical spring 26 exerts a suitable amount of tensioning force on the roller, so that the opposed rollers b constitute a press. Rollers b are provided with cleaning brushes 27 like those 21 already described.

The first pair of spaced rollers b is driven or rotated at a more rapid speed than the first pair of belts a and the next pair of belts a beyond rollers b is driven at a still greater speed and so on, successively, toward the discharge end of the machine so that there is an increasing speed gradient from the entrance end of the machine to its discharge end.

The operation of the machine will be clear from the foregoing and from the accompanying drawings, from which it will be observed that the admixed fibers and detergent powder pass alternately between pairs of belts and pairs of rollers wherein each successive unit is being driven at a higher rate of speed, as compared with the preceding unit and in addition, the spacing between the pairs of belts and pairs of rolls successively decreases in the direction of fiber travel thereby alternately exerting compression and traction effects upon the fibers, so that the detergent powder is frictionally rubbed in a most effective manner against the fibers to remove therefrom waxes, fats and other undesirable substances present in the fibers being treated. The combined action and physical arrangement of the units of the machine cause the fibers to be drafted and successively reduced in thickness while at the same time causing the fibers to become oriented in parallelism.

It has been found that the described and illustrated machine is highly effective in cleaning, drafting and parallelizing wool and other fibrous material. While the used powder has been described as falling through the openings of conveyor 6, it will be understood that force may be applied to assist the separation of used powder and fibers as by suction, beating, etc.

In a modified form of the invention, the endless belts of each pair of belts may be driven at different speeds thereby additionally providing a dragging effect on fibers passing between the belts and enhancing the frictional effect of the detergent powder. In still another form of the invention, the machine may be operated in such manner that one belt a of each or any pair of belts is stopped from movement while the other belt of that same pair of belts continues to circulate in the normal way. This provides another means of increasing the effectiveness of the various actions upon the fibers.

I claim:

A machine for cleaning, drafting and parallelizing wool and other fibrous material which comprises an alternating series of pairs of spaced endless belts and pairs of spaced rolls, a set of rolls on which each endless belt is mounted and by which it is driven, the said pairs of spaced endless belts and spaced pairs of rolls being arranged in linear alignment to provide a continuous passage therebetween for fibers'to be processed, means for resiliently urging each-pair of endless belts and each pair of rolls toward the said passage, means for maintaining each endless belt under tension, means for introducing a powdered detergent into one end of said passage between the first pair of spaced endless belts, means for feeding fibrous material to be processed into said passage between the same pair of belts, said detergent becoming admixed with said fibrous material, each successive pair of belts and rolls being rotated at a greater speed than the preceding pair ofbelts and rolls to form an increasing speed gradient from one'end of themachine to'the' other, a perforate conveyor disposed beyond the last pair of spaced rolls UNITED STATES PATENTS 613,267 Gruene Nov. 1, 1898 1,323,641 McBride Dec. 2, 1919 2,345,988 Ockrant Apr. 4, 1944 2,591,866 Pope Apr. 8, 1952 Boer Nov. 4, 1958 

